It’s no secret photography is a career where only the very best will make it. I know a fair number of young photojournalists read this blog regularly so I want to be straight with those of you who might not have heard it yet.
Are you ready?
There’s no future as a newspaper photographer in the United States.
Let’s look at a few trends.
- Newspaper circulation has been declining for over 20 years.
- Your generation doesn’t read newspapers and neither will your kids.
- Newspaper photographer salaries had more worth in the 1960s than they do now.
- Newspaper journalists in general show a decline in job satisfaction.
- Want Weekly Updates of Layoffs?
Now, I know there are some of you who are unshakable. Photojournalism is the only thing you can imagine doing for the rest of your life. It’s in your blood. When you’re bored, you’re looking at stories to shoot and going to workshops and entering contests. There’s a very strong and understanding community for you out there. They understand why you’re in it and what you hope to accomplish. You feel that you are doing some good in the world. That your images will make a difference in someone’s life and that’s worth it for you. You might even be willing to give up family life and friends to make that difference.
I won’t argue that the training is practical and can be used in a variety of visual fields. But it has little economic value when you’re on your own trying to make it. Newspapers may be a stable income now, but the future looks very gloomy…and freelance does as well. There’s really no ‘thriving’ market for your pictures out there with the number of shooters on the scene these days. Not enough to make a stellar living at least. You know it’s a crazy industry when former Photographers of the Year, Magnum photographers, National Geographic Photographers and A-game shooters still have to shoot weddings to make it. The average person doesn’t want to look at people dying, kids in wheel chairs, the homeless, the latest disease that everybody wants to enter in the contests (autism).
Take for example the picture of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s kids that sold for millions. It has value to our society, whether it makes sense or not.
I’ll give you an extreme example. Supply and demand is what sets the price in our society. As you’ve read in previous posts, the market is saturated with photographers and pictures. There are billions of images floating around out there.
The barriers to entry have never been lower. Anyone can buy a camera, anyone can sell images. We can safely assume there will be even more images in the market in the future. Yes, pictures will be in more demand but supply is outstripping demand and will continue to do so. Because of this massive supply, the pressure on prices will continue to drop and your services will be less in need at their current prices.
Compare this to the demand of Brad and Angelina’s twins. One pair of famous people. One set of famous kids. One photographer has the pictures. How much will the market pay for that? Apparently $14 million.
An extreme example, of course. But it illustrates the point. Much of the world we live in operates on market principles. If you understand your market, you understand the demand for your products.
If you’re already making it you know that to stay afloat, you have to supply your customers with what they WANT not what you THINK they should see or what you LIKE shooting.
So, I want to caution you for getting too involved in the “I want to change the world people have to have their stories told argument,” because I don’t want you to live at home with your parents.
Try a few of these tests out to see if people care as much about photojournalism as they used to:
1. Ask 10 people, who don’t know a thing about photography or journalism, to name one Pulitzer winner in the last 10 years.
2. Ask that same group if they can name a picture that won a Pulitzer in the last 10 years…20 years? What about one Oscar winner in the past 10 years? See my point?
3. Compare fictional movies about social issues to photo stories about social issues and, be honest, ask yourself which has more impact on generating a social dialogue.
(Remember that movie Blood Diamond? Photo stories have been done for years on that topic. Nobody cared. Then the movie came out and it’s all over CNN for a week and jewelry stores started putting up signs, “We Don’t Sell Conflict Diamonds.”
4. Compare the shelf life of a newspaper image (1 day) with an advertising picture (weeks and months) or an image in a book (forever). What has more value?
Make sense? Supply and Demand. Newspapers have dwindling demand. Images have increasing supply. Prices are going DOWN!
I’m not saying (photo)journalism is dead. I’m saying there’s no economic future in it for most people. It will always be around. It’s part of the fabric of this country.
What I am saying is don’t worry so much about complicated layering, impressing your peers and producing difficult images but focus rather on your business sense. Work on your lighting skills, portraiture, business acumen, marketing, video production. Understand what has demand in the marketplace and provide it.
If you still want to be a photojournalist, you should. If it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood. But really think hard about it. I think a viable option might be to move to a European country like Denmark or an Asian country like India. Their newspaper industry is still thriving…you’ll probably make a better living because of unionization and higher demand for print.
Your Friend,
The Monk
Update 10/24/2008: New Jersey Star-Ledger Cuts Staff in Half
